Blank handling apparatus for headers



Oct. 25, 1955 J. H. FRIEDMAN 2,721,343

BLANK HANDLING APPARATUS FOR HEADERS Filed March 12, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l J. .57 INVENTOR. JOHN H. FRIEDMAN 4 444 2 mjai Oct. 25, 1955 J. H. FRIEDMAN BLANK HANDLING APPARATUS FOR HEADERS INVENTOR ATTORNEYS JOHN H FRIEDMAN fig x AL/Z6,-

- 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 12, 1951 United States Patent BLANK HANDLING APPARATUS FOR HEADERS John H. Friedman, Tifiin, Ohio, assignor to The National Machinery Company, Tiifin, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application March 12, 1951, Serial No. 215,142

2 Claims. (Cl. -12) This invention relates to machines for successively performing a series of operations upon metal stock to produce blanks for screws, pipe plugs, and similar articles.

A machine for performing a plurality of operations upon blanks cut off from wire or rod stock is illustrated in the patent to Frost, 2,020,658, and such machines may include thread-rolling apparatus as shown in the patent to Frost, 2,020,659, and pointing mechanism as shown in my patent No. 2,020,660.

These machines are arranged to shear blanks from rod or wire stock and to upset and otherwise form the blanks in successive cooperative sets of tools and dies. Transfer means are arranged to transport the blanks to successive dies, such as the transfer mechanism illustrated in the patent to Clouse, No. 2,026,823.

In the machines illustrated in the aforesaid Frost patent, 2,020,658, and in my patent No. 2,020,660, the last station provided by the cooperating tools on the header slide and bed frame is a trimming station in which the blanks are pushed by a knockout from the final station on the die breast through a trimming die carried by the terminal tool on the header slide. The trimmed blanks are urged along a passageway formed in the header slide from which blanks are transferred either to a pointing mechanism mounted on the side of the bed frame, or to a collecting station. As explained in my Patent No. 2,275,103, it frequently happens that it is desired to form articles on such machines wherein the operation performed at the last tool and die set is not a mere trimming operation, but rather is an upsetting, gathering, or punching operation, with which the terminal tool must be solid and so may not have a blank receiving passageway formed therein.

In order to dispose of blanks in such machines, it has been proposed to provide an idle station in the die breast laterally spaced from the final die, there being a tool or other projection laterally spaced from the last forming tool on the header slide that ejects blanks from the transfer into the idle station and thereon through an outlet passageway in the bed frame. As explained in detail in my said Patent No. 2,278,103, this construction has the disadvantage that it requires an increase in width of the header slide in order to accommodate the blank ejecting tool on the slide which weakens the machine unless a very expensive and heavy bed frame construction is employed to compensate for the required increase in width of the slide. These difficulties are overcome in my aforesaid Patent No. 2,278,103, wherein an auxiliary transfer means is mounted on a transfer carriage for receiving and picking the blank from the last die when the knockout in the last die operates, and lifting the blank to a blank-receiving channel or guideway mounted on an upper portion of the machine. Mechanism driven by the machine and associated with the guideway is also provided to advance the blanks therethrough. Although this apparatus effectively solves the problem of holding header slide width to a minimum (where the last step is not a trimming operation but is a heading or other operation reice quiring a solid tool), I have found that these same advantages may be obtained without need for a mechanically operated lift mechanism for the final transfer or ejector fingers by a novel arrangement of parts which are of unusually simple and economical construction, and which are exceptionally rugged in service.

Briefly, I have found that these advantages may be obtained by a simple and novel mechanism wherein a terminal or ejector set of transfer fingers is mounted on the transfer carriage, spaced a fixed distance from the adjacent regular transfer fingers by a distance equaling the spacing between the dies. Also, there is disposed in the die breast a knockout that is aligned with the row of dies and spaced from the last die by a distance equal to the nominal spacing between the dies. Finally the knockout device has its axis aligned with a blank-receiving tube having an inlet mouth facing the final or auxiliary knockout and formed in the side portion of the bed frame, the blank receiving tube is laterally spaced from but in the plane or row of the tools carried by the header slide. The timing of the cam or other means provided for operating the final knockout in the die breast, that is, the knockout opposite the blank-receiving tube, is different from the timing of the knockouts for the working dies, in that instead of ejecting the blank with the transfer carriage disposed toward the shearing station and with the header slide retracted, the auxiliary knockout is operated when the transfer carriage is away from the shearing station at which time the header slide is advanced and the auxiliary set of fingers is disposed in front of the blank-receiving tube. With the construction of the instant invention the operation at the last die may be a heading operation without requiring that the header slide be widened for employment of a tool to force blanks into an idle station and without requiring provision of an independently and vertically movable auxiliary transfer device and means to advance the blanks in the guide as disclosed in my said Patent No. 2,278,103.

The manner in which the foregoing and other advantages may be attained will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred form of the apparatus.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section looking toward the bed frame dies of a cold header embodying the invention with the transfer in extreme right hand position.

Fig. 2 is a view like Fig. 1 with the transfer carriage in its extreme left hand position.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section through the tool and die assembly of the apparatus;

Fig. 4 is a partial vertical section at the shearing station;

Fig. 5 is a detail of the ejector transfer fingers; and,

Fig. 6 is a somewhat diagrammatic illustrating the knockout timing. 2

The apparatus as shown is arranged to produce a blank having a head of circular section and a smaller square shank, such as a pipe plug blank. Cold headers and their accessories are well known to those skilled in the art and in the interests of clarity only so much of a double blow cold header as is necessary to understand the invention will be illustrated and described in detail.

The header includes a bed frame 10 having a transverse die breast 11 and a movable header slide 12 mounted in Ways of guides 13 carried by spaced side portions of the frame. The die breast includes a plurality of dies D1, D2, and D3, and the header slide includes cooperating tools T1, T2, and Ta carrying punches P1, P2, and P3. The header slide may be reciprocated by the usual crankshaft as is well-known in the art, a suitable arrangement being disclosed in the patent to Clouse, 2,139,926. In the form shown, the device operates on wire or rod stock S fed from a coil and advanced against a stock guage G by intermittently-driven feed rolls as exemplified by the said patent to Clouse, 2,139,936, it being understood that details of the feeding mechanism are not critical to the invention.

The shear includes a vertically-reciprocating knife 14 mounted in a groove 15 in the die breast supported by a carrier 16, details of a suitable shear and operating mechanism being disclosed in the aforesaid patent to Clouse. The stock is fed through a feed opening 17 into the aperture of a shearing die 18 in the shear blade 14. As the blade rises, the blank 01 is sheared from the stock and carried upwardly in alignment with the shear knockout K1, which is urged in its retracted position by a spring 19. The timing and operation of the shear knockout K1 and of the knockouts K2, K3, and K4 for the respective die sets may be arranged as disclosed in the aforesaid patents to Clouse, 2,139,936 and 2,026,823, the details of this construction forming no part of the invention. However, the final or ejector knockout K5 is out of phase with the others, in that it is actuated when the transfer fingers are to the right as seen in Figs. 1 and 2 instead of to the left. For example, if the knockouts K1 to K5 are, as seen in Fig. 6, actuated by cams C1 to C5 respectively (or by corresponding cam-actuated levers) actuator C5 will be in the knockout position when the actuators C1 to C4 are in their retracted position.

A transfer mechanism T is arranged to reciprocate three pairs of transfer fingers 21 and 22 between the shear station and first die, and between successive dies. Said transfer mechanism is preferably made according to Clouse Patent 2,026,823. In accordance with the instant invention, a terminal set of ejector transfer fingers 23 is mounted on the carriage 31 to reciprocate with the transfer fingers 21 and 22. To receive the finished blanks from the ejector fingers 23, a tube or guideway is provided in the side portion of the bed frame and in alignment with the right hand position of the ejector fingers 23. A knockout K5 is mounted in the die breast in alignment with the mouth of the tube 26. Means are provided to prevent finished blanks from falling out of the tube, including a ball 27 pressed by a spring 28 mounted in a housing 29 secured to the tube 26 near the mouth thereof.

The transfer assembly T includes a reciprocable carriage 31 which moves parallel to the line a row of dies and is slidably supported in fixed guide member 32. Sets of cooperating arms 33 and 34 are pivoted to the carriage as at 35 and support respectively the three sets of transfer fingers 2 2 and 21. The fingers are closed to receive a blank and opened to clear the header tools by suitable mechanism (not shown) but described in the aforesaid patent to Clouse 2,026,823. In order to reciprocate the carriage, link means 37 and 3.8, operated by a crank 39 mounted on an oscillating shaft 41 are provided, a suitable time for this mechanism being disclosed in the aforesaid patent to Clouse, 2,026,823.

The terminal or ejector set of transfer fingers 23 is mounted on a plate 43 attached to the carriage 31 of the transfer assembly. The fingers are urged against a centering block 44, there being a guide pin 46 loosely mounted in an aperture 47 in block 44 and opposed compression springs 48 for urging the fingers inwardly so that they may grip the blank. Pin 49 guides the upper ends of the fingers and suitable fasteners 50 mount the assembly on the transfer carriage 31.

In operation, rod or wire stock 8 is fed through the feed opening 17 into a shearing aperture 18 in the shear blade 14 against a stock gauge G. In the first operation a blank 01 is sheared from the stock, and as the shear rises it comes to rest in front of the first knockout pin K which is advanced into the shear aperture by suitable cams or levers, and which may be urged to its retracted position by'a spring such as 19. Upon retraction of the header slide. 12, knockout K1 pushes the sheared blank between the first pair of transfer fingers 21 and 22 which have been positioned to the left as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. The transfer operating mechanism is timed with respect to the header slide movement so that when the header slide has receded from the die breast a sheared blank 01 is presented to the first die D1. Thereafter the header advances toward the die breast and the punch P carried by the first tool T1 is urged in its extended position by a spring as at 51, forces the blank 01 into the first die D1, whereupon the sheared blank is beveled at one end to form the blank 02. Knockouts for dies D2 and D3 are also operated in the usual timed relationship with respect to the transfer and header slide motions so that the blank is successively presented to the second tool and die set T2 and D2 to form the extended blank 03, and to the final tool and die set T3 and D3 to form the finished blank 04. With the slide retracted and with transfer carriage to the left in the drawings, knockout K4 forces the finished blank from die D3 into the final ejector or transfer fingers 23. Before advance of the slide is completed the transfer fingers are moved to the right as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, presenting new blanks to each die and carrying the completed blank D4 to a position between knockout K5 and tube 26. As has been explained, the cam or other mechanism that operates knockout K5 is out-of-phase with respect to the cam or mechanism which moves the shear and die knockouts in that knockout K5 is advanced when the transfer carriage 31 is in its right-hand position. Then, with the slide in a forward position the blank 04 is forced knockout K5 from fingers 23 into tube 26. Tube 26 preferably leads upwardly and outwardly, and may conduct the blanks to a thread-rolling station or to a collect ing station.

Having completed a detailed description of a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that various modification and changes therein may be made without departing from the essence of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A header having a bed frame, an axially reciprocating slide, a die-breast on said bed frame, a die in said die-breast, a cooperating tool on said slide, means for supplying blanks to said die to be worked upon by said tool; a blank-receiving aperture in said bed frame to one side of said slide substantially horizontally aligned with said die, said aperture having an inlet mouth facing said die-breast and spaced axially therefrom to provide clearance for transfer means, said aperture leading exteriorly of said frame for conducting said blanks to a succeeding external station, transfer mechanism including blank transporting means mounted for reciprocation from a first position in front of said die to a second position in front of said blank-receiving aperture, a knockout slidable in said die for ejecting a blank from said die into said blank transporting means with the latter in said first position, a blank ejector in said die-breast aligned with the mouth of said blank-receiving aperture for ejecting a blank from said blank transporting means into said aperture with the blank transporting means in said second position, and means to advance said knockout with said blank transporting means in said first position and to actuate said ejector with said blank transporting means in said second position, said means to advance said blockout and actuate said ejector being arranged so that the movement of the knockout and ejection is substantially out of phase.

2. A header having a bed frame, an axially reciprocating slide, a die-breast on said bed frame, said die-breast and bed frame being formed to provide a notch on one side of said slide having axially opposed walls, a die in said die-breast, a cooperating tool on said slide, means for supplying blanks to said die to be worked upon by said tool; a blank receiving aperture in said bed frame substantially horizontally aligned with said die having an inlet mouth formed in the wall of said notch that faces said die-breast, said aperture leading exteriorly of said frame for conducting said blanks to a succeeding external station, transfer mechanism including blank transporting means mounted for reciprocation from a first position in front of said die to a second position in front of said blank-receiving aperture, a knockout slidable in said die for ejecting a blank from said die into said blank transporting means with the latter in said first position, a blank ejector in the other Wall of said notch and aligned with the mouth of said blank-receiving aperture for ejecting a blank from said blank transporting means into said aperture with the blank transporting means in said second position, and means to advance said knockout with said blank transporting means in said first position and to actuate said ejector with said blank transporting means in said second position, said means to advance said knockout and actuate said ejector being arranged so that the movement of the knockout and ejection is substantially 180 out of phase.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,963,572 Wilcox June 19, 1934 2,278,103 Friedman Mar. 31, 1942 2,544,218 Burdsall Mar. 6, 1951 2,554,699 Gamble May 29, 1951 

